We’ve reached a point
Where simple words now trigger reactions
Completely devoid of meaning.
I won’t share some of those words now
Because they might trigger you
Or for sure the censor bots
Who patrol the web.
But we can all imagine a few,
Words and symbols which once had use
Rich in context and meaning
But then were perverted
In the name of some now canceled cause.
Of course there are many more causes
Waiting to be cancelled
So soon all descriptive terms and symbols
Will no longer exist to trigger the easily disturbed.
When that day comes
We will be reduced to composing in code
Numbers in combinations of aughts and ones
But then again,
That primary binary basis of reality
Will no doubt trigger us too.
And then we will be left
In silent pantomime of our truths
Reality reduced at last
To the charade it has become.
(9/2/26)
(“Citadel of Light Merit Badge”, 2016, original pen and ink)
Have you noticed
How it’s become a thing
To expect others to be as stupid as you
And then when they aren’t
Label them with whatever moniker
Of hatred their unvirtue deserves,
Like “racist”, “fascist”, “whateveraphobe”?
The virtue of fools
Is that whatever they think and say and do
Must be virtuous
Because of course, they are virtuous
Simply by being,
Which is, of course, simply
Why they are fools.
The stupid, like the dead, have two things in common
Neither know they are,
And neither know what they are missing.
What is virtue you say?
Whatever it is that fulfills your purpose
The fulfillment of which
Separates the foolish from the wise.
(6/30/26)
(“Utopia and Terror Merit Badge”, 2010, original oil)
Ideal and real exist in opposition
Like two children on a playground teeter-totter
Two children who will grow
To be completely different adults.
Idealism is the default of all infants
And is what all mature humans grow out of
Sooner or later, all too often much later,
Perhaps for some
Not until the moment of death.
It feels good after all to want what you want
And even expect to get it!
But realism sees beyond such wants
To what is.
Realism is the philosophy of accepting
Simply what is.
While idealism wishes for what can be
It may even seem noble
Yet is in-fact the ultimate intolerant view,
And taken to the extreme
Has led to the worst atrocities
In human history.
Does realism sometimes lead to atrocities?
Perhaps, but to the realist
They would just be necessity.
So idealism is the philosophy of infants and tyrants,
While realism makes do
And gets along as best as can be.
But this doesn’t have to be a morose fatalism
As there is always a bright side.
There is always a new day dawning
Somewhere at this very moment.
That isn’t idealism
That’s very real.
(1/30/25)
Everyday it seems
Society is stretched
By some pressure
Internal or ex
Till the center
Cannot hold
And it comes apart
At the seams
A little more.
While the world
Has known worse
Death and destruction
Disease and famine
Today’s Earthlings
Have increasingly reached
Their limited bandwidth
Over something
As simple
As a tweet.
When does it end
This self destruction
Which seeks
To take down
As many
As it can?
When we return
To traditional values
Of faith, family
And country.
Are we close
To such
A turning point?
So close.
Will it be achieved?
The jury
Is still out.
(9/28/25)
Ariana Grande had many teenage fans
girls went to her concerts, in different lands
Then a bomb went off in Manchester killed 22
Revenge, ideology, a toxic stew
Girls liked to sing along with Taylor Swift
But in the alienated mind there was a rift
He stabbed little girls at a Swiftie themed class
Three of them died, there's a question we could ask.
What kind of hate, what kind of payback
leads to this kind of horror, indiscriminate attack
Why do they zoom in on those we should protect
What society would they build, after ours they wrecked.
Taylor was planning a concert in an Austrian venue
But religious maniacs knew what to do
With explosives and knives, they'd kill the crowd
The more thousands of dead, the more they'd be proud.
Your religion, your revenge, your deadly schemes
Let girls be girls, let teens be teens
There's no harm in a good sing along
Killing one innocent is always wrong
“Woke”, past tense of “awake”,
It is generally thought that,
This is a good thing,
My worst nightmares begin,
At that point.
If being “awake” means ignoring,
Reality at another’s behest,
It’s intolerable.
Allow the thoughts of others,
Permeate my mind,
So I Might wade into the pool of diversity.
Do not deny myriad creative thought,
And when the creation blooms,
In all its perverse manner,
However, it is clothed (or not),
My Concern fades.
The impact of being “awake”,
When the travails (and joyful
Epiphanies) of life become,
We realize every thought is past,
Tense.
Wake up!
RKB
Go ahead,
Tell the world what to do
So it’s more like
The world you want.
Forget for a moment
You have only been here
For a moment
While the world
Both the literal earthy one
And the figurative human one
Have been here
Turning, surviving, evolving
For a very long time indeed.
Tell us
What we need to do
To make this all a safe
And better place
To preserve the fragile peace
Of your well founded confidence.
(7/14/23)
The seeds of hatred, who has sown?
The winds of intolerance, who has blown?
The two deadliest snakes, so far unknown;
Like weeds in society, now they are grown.
Beware of these weapons aimed at you;
To your own self, you always try to be true.
Think not that things will change on their own;
Analyse the insults to which you are prone.
Accept not ever your defeat untried;
Let not slide a bit your personal pride.
Wage a war against every evil unafraid.
Is it a crime to call a spade a spade?
Kaffee
Ist schwarz
Warum
Du magst
Getränk
Kaffee
Morgen
Unter dem Weihnachtsbaum?
Und die Nacht
Warum
Du trinkst
Kaffee
Mit Milch
Und du verwendest
Nussbutter
Auf frischen Brot?
Du magst nicht
Keine Schwarzen
Warum
Du trinkst
Kaffee
Sehr schwarz
Morgen
Wie Idioten?
Und die Nacht
Warum
Du trinkst
Kaffee
Mit Milch ?
Verlasse mich
Der Frieden !
Rassismus ist
Unsinn
Und dumm!
P.S. Translation of ‘ The Black Coffee’ in German.
Copyright © Dezember 2021, Hébert Logerie, Alle Rechte vorbehalten
Hébert Logerie ist Autor mehrerer Gedichtbände.
Lady Liberty’s torch burns
the liberal conscience smiles
darknesss covers for spite
hatred found a way
fires light up big city skies
political pandering
battles with the torch of peace
Uncontrolled chants for justice lead to murder
uncontrollable chance for carnage open
for clamor
for chaos.
Consciences are seered,
primed for base intolerance.
and it dawns on me
while straightness
aims for conformity
it seems to clutter
people's brains
with madeup rules of
shoulds and musts
that snowball
spitefully into
rampant
venomous
chaos
AP: Honorable Mention 2020
Insulting As it can be
New contest acRostic
To demean an arChbishop
Our arcHbishop is our spiritual
Leader same as a raBbi or an
Eastern clerIc
Remove this conteSt
And don't judge How catholics worship
Never judge Other faiths
Tolerance Please
Archbishop Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Julia Ward
2/7/20
Starting from Scratch with Ol’ Scratch
by Michael R. Burch
Love, with a small, fatalistic sigh
went to the ovens. Please don’t bother to cry.
You could have saved her, but you were all tied up
complaining about the Jews to Reichmeister Grupp.
Scratch that. You were born after World War II.
You had something more important to do:
while the children of the Nakba were perishing in Gaza
with the complicity of your government, you had a noble cause (a
religious tract against homosexual marriage
and various things gods and evangelists disparage.)
Jesus will grok you? Ah, yes, I’m quite sure
that your intentions were good and ineluctably pure.
After all, what the hell does he care about Palestinians?
Certainly, Christians were right about serfs, slaves and Indians.
Scratch that. You’re one of the Devil’s minions.
Intolerance, Our Downfall
Written: by Miracle man
8-10-2019
Hatred has its finger,
On each trigger pull.
Intolerance abounds,
And man’s heart seems full.
It’s true guns kill,
But the heart is the cause.
This will never be fixed,
By enacting more laws.
Proverbs 16:24
Pleasant words [are as] an honeycomb, sweet to the soul,
And health to the bones.
Notre Dame
now maimed
terror's imprint
hate proclaimed
Notre Dame
ravaged, lame
intolerance aflame
for shame, for shame
Notre Dame
great holy name
fearful to blame
~ to the world inflame
Not for the ND contest
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.